Class action suit against Microsoft (Vista)

[Shark Tek]

Originally Posted by CNN.com

SEATTLE (AP) -- -- A federal judge said Friday that consumers may go ahead with a class action lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. over the way it advertised computers loaded with Windows XP as capable of running the Vista operating system.

The lawsuit said Microsoft's labeling of some PCs as "Windows Vista Capable" was misleading because many of those computers were not powerful enough to run all of Vista's features, including the much-touted "Aero" user interface.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman certified the class action suit but whittled down its scope to focus primarily on whether Microsoft's "Vista Capable" labels created artificial demand for computers during the 2006 holiday shopping season, and inflated prices for computers that couldn't be upgraded to the full-featured version of Vista, which was released at the end of January 2007.

Neither of the two people who filed the original lawsuit participated in a program Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) devised to help people who bought new computers before Vista's launch upgrade later to the new operating system, but they argued nonetheless that people who bought "Vista Capable" computers were harmed because they could only run a basic version of Vista.

The judge said if they added a named plaintiff who did take part in Microsoft's "Express Upgrade" program, they could pursue that claim as well.

Source



This is stupid, now I will sue Ubisoft, EA, etc... because I have a machine that fulfill the minimum requirements but I can't play games nicely.

[jjackowski]

It isn't stupid because MS claimed "Vista Capable" without stating which editions so some people assumed the computers would run Vista Ultimate, which they can't. The major question here is just how misleading was the claim.

To compare to games, it would be like you can run game X, and game X was advertised as having many mods/extras available for download when released. Then people find most of the mods/extras require hardware Z (maybe twice the RAM, or a GPU that was released a week prior) that was never mentioned in the system requirements. So they've got a game they can run, but they can only play half the game and only found out after they paid for the game.

In my opinion, the high requirements of Vista is just another reason to not use Windows. I know quite a few people who don't feel that strongly about it, but they aren't, uh, upgrading to Vista.

[skiddy]

Originally Posted by jjackowski

It isn't stupid because MS claimed "Vista Capable" without stating which editions so some people assumed the computers would run Vista Ultimate, which they can't. The major question here is just how misleading was the claim.

That point is moot. You can run Vista ultimate without aero.

[Duce2k]

I never fell for those so called Vista capable machines, but if any of those owners did any research it clearly states that many Vista capable machines will not run the aero interface without either updating the Video card or other hardware.

[dentrecords]

Yeah, this thread has nothing to do with macs. Whoever instigated that, keep it off this site.

[Cybergypsy]

Doinky Doink™

Still think all these law suits are crazy!

[Cybergypsy]

Originally Posted by Duce2k

I never fell for those so called Vista capable machines, but if any of those owners did any research it clearly states that many Vista capable machines will not run the aero interface without either updating the Video card or other hardware.

I did last year when the HP touchscreen came out....Vista was freezing way too much......

[volvo9]

The lawsuit will not go through. The sticker meerly says Vista CAPABLE, not this computer can run every feature in Windows Vista.

You can say I'm capable of running but that dosen't mean I'm capable of running a marathon.

[Cybergypsy]

Originally Posted by volvo9

The lawsuit will not go through. The sticker meerly says Vista CAPABLE, not this computer can run every feature in Windows Vista.

You can say I'm capable of running but that dosen't mean I'm capable of running a marathon.

LOL.....

[Shark Tek]

Ok guys I found this while surfing the net and post it on my Blog.

Microsoft lowered Vista requirements to help Intel sell incompatible chipsets

If this is true now things take another perspective and MS + Intel are in deep trouble.

[definingmoment]

Originally Posted by skiddy

That point is moot. You can run Vista ultimate without aero.

but the whole point is if it says "vista capable" it should be able to handle everything vista entails, and it can't. That's be like buying a car that says mp3 player compatible, but you cant control the volume. I'm glad people are finally starting to see what a stupid company microsoft is. Just because you crap something out doesn't mean consumers will eat it up.

[definingmoment]

Originally Posted by volvo9

The lawsuit will not go through. The sticker meerly says Vista CAPABLE, not this computer can run every feature in Windows Vista.

You can say I'm capable of running but that dosen't mean I'm capable of running a marathon.

But that also doesn't mean that you're NOT capable of running a marathon!

[volvo9]

Originally Posted by definingmoment

But that also doesn't mean that you're NOT capable of running a marathon!

If MS purposely lowered the standards for Intel then they where definately wrong by doing so. I just read up a bit on an Intel article about the Intel 915 chipset not being able to handle Aero. The integrated graphics processor and memory just aren't powerful enough to run Aero, but can run the basic Vista desktop.

The chipset in question was put in low end pc's but I guess the real problem comes when you ask what the computers where marketed as being compatible with. I could argue all day about a sticker that says capable on it, but if there was a check list or something on the side of the computer saying that it was fully compatible with Vista that then changes things up.

[skiddy]

Originally Posted by definingmoment

but the whole point is if it says "vista capable" it should be able to handle everything vista entails, and it can't. That's be like buying a car that says mp3 player compatible, but you cant control the volume. I'm glad people are finally starting to see what a stupid company microsoft is. Just because you crap something out doesn't mean consumers will eat it up.

Sorry but it just seems like people are grasping for straws with that argument. Aero is a visual add-on that makes things look pretty, it has no functional value for the O/S to work. Dreamscene is the same. No volume control on a CD player/MP3 player would make the device worthless.